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NEWS & VIEWS N

Canadian Contributions to the American Academy of Optometry
2017 Meeting

Dr. Benoit Tousignant, OD, MPH
Clinical Faculty, School of Optometry
Université de Montréal

he American Academy of Optometry meeting in October 2017 (Chicago, USA) once again included many
important Canadian contributions. Students, graduate students, research associates, adjunct faculty, and fac-
Tulty from both of the Canadian Schools of Optometry were responsible for 54 items in the program, includ-
ing CE talks, scientific presentations, workshops and symposiums (Figures 1-4). Details of these presentations can
be found in Tables 1-4.

At the meeting, 256 new Fellows and 10 Diplomates joined the Academy, including alumni and faculty from both
UM and UW (Table 5). Additionally, 11 students from Waterloo and 19 from Montreal completed their Student Fel-
lowships this year; Student Fellows must participate in several different aspects of the AAO such as a poster session,
lectures, a symposium, etc.

This was a notable year for Canadian award recipients, including UM Clinical Faculty Dr. Luigi Bilotto, who
received the AAO-Essilor Award for Outstanding International Contributions to Optometry for his work on imple-
menting optometric education in developing countries with the Brien Holden Vision Institute (Figure 5). UM As-
sociate Professor Dr. Etty Bitton received the Dr. Mae Booth-Jones Award for Mentorship from the Theia Awards
(Women ODs for Excellence, Figure 6). Dr. Ian Erkelens (PhD candidate, UW) was the recipient of an Irvin M.
Borish – Essilor Ezell Fellowship (Figure 7). Ezell Fellowships are the flagship program of the American Academy
of Optometry Foundation, and are intended to encourage talented individuals to pursue full-time careers in opto-
metric research and education in a school or college of optometry.

Fig 1: Dr. Claudine Courey (UM) presenting a talk on Fig 2: UM graduates Djordje Radic OD and Eric Lortie-
scleral lenses. Milner OD with Dr. Etty Bitton, presenting a poster on
NIBUT measurement.

CANADIAN JOURNAL of OPTOMETRY | REVUE CANADIENNE D’OPTOMÉTRIE VOL. 80 NO. 3 77

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